Daily Brew: Thirty states will now allow medical marijuana

June 27,, 2018

Voters in Oklahoma approve State Question 788, making the state the 30th to allow medical marijuana + You know the congressional partisan breakdown - let Ballotpedia give you the breakdown at the city level   Voters in Oklahoma approve State Question 788, making the state the 30th to allow medical marijuana Voters passed State Question 788, a measure designed to legalize marijuana, also known as cannabis, for medical purposes in Oklahoma. Of the 29 states (and Washington, D.C.) permitting medical marijuana as of June 2018, 14 states achieved legalization via statewide ballot measure and 15 states passed laws in their state legislatures. There will be no specific qualifying conditions to receive medical marijuana. People with licenses will be permitted to possess up to three ounces of marijuana on their person and eight ounces of marijuana in their residence. A 7 percent tax will be levied on marijuana sales, with revenue being allocated to administrative costs, education, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Two other 2018 initiatives regarding marijuana are certified for ballots in two states. The Utah Medical Marijuana initiative will be on the November 6, 2018, general election ballot in Utah. The Michigan Marijuana Legalization initiative, which would legalize recreational use of marijuana, is also on the November 6, 2018, general election ballot in Michigan. So far in 2018, initiatives relating to marijuana have been proposed in Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Washington. Learn more         You know the congressional partisan breakdown - let Ballotpedia give you the breakdown at the city level Democratic mayors currently oversee 63 of the nation's 100 largest cities, according to Ballotpedia's updated Partisanship in United States municipal elections report. That number is unchanged from 2017, and slightly lower than in 2016 when Democrats held mayoral posts in 67 of the largest 100 cities. Twenty-three of the 100 largest cities are holding elections in 2018. Thirteen of those cities have a Democratic incumbent, and eight have a Republican incumbent. Two feature Independent incumbents. Learn more→ Supreme Court overturns preliminary injunction of Trump administration’s travel ban The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s ruling on the Trump administration’s travel ban. The court reversed a lower court’s grant of a preliminary injunction and remanded the case to the lower courts for further proceedings. Previously, the court had stopped the majority of the injunction from going into effect. In a 5-4 decision yesterday authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s ruling. Roberts was joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. Focusing its decision on the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction, the court concluded that the plaintiffs could not show likelihood that they would succeed on the merits in the case (plaintiffs must show they are likely to succeed on the merits in order for a court to grant a preliminary injunction) because the order fell within the President’s broad power over immigration matters. Reviewing immigration law and presidential authority over immigration, Roberts wrote, “The Proclamation does not exceed any textual limit on the President's authority.” Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented from the court’s ruling. In her dissent, Sotomayor wrote that she believed the plaintiffs had demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits. She wrote, “The majority holds otherwise by ignoring the facts [and] misconstruing our legal precedent . . . Whatever the merits of plaintiffs’ complex statutory claims, the Proclamation must be enjoined for a more fundamental reason: It runs afoul of the Establishment Clause’s guarantee of religious neutrality.” Learn more→